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For Patient Advocates

An advocate is someone who supports or defends a cause. In the cancer community, an advocate supports a cause or policy regarding cancer. Cancer advocates can work on a local or national level, providing support to those living with cancer, raising public awareness of the disease, advancing cancer research, improving the quality of cancer care, or addressing legislative and regulatory issues that affect cancer care and research.

ASCO's mission has always centered around improving the treatment and care of people living with cancer. This mission includes serving not only the educational needs of the professional oncology community, but the educational needs of the patient community as well. As the leading professional medical society in clinical oncology, ASCO shares your goal of helping people living with cancer obtain accurate, reliable, and timely information about their disease and treatment options. To that end, we encourage you to take part in the patient advocate programs that ASCO offers. You may learn more about these programs by exploring the sections below or by downloading a PDF brochure

We hope you will find these sections of Cancer.Net to be helpful. Please share your feedback by contacting us at patientadvocates@asco.org.

A person who has been affected by cancer often wants to make a difference in the lives of people with the disease by becoming a cancer advocate. It can be a positive and empowering experience to help others by providing support to those living with cancer, raising public awareness, advancing cancer research, improving the quality of cancer care, and addressing legislative and regulatory issues that affect cancer care and research. Advocating for others also provides a forum to share stories about dealing with the cancer experience.

The ASCO Annual Meeting is a forum for cutting edge scientific and educational developments in oncology. This meeting is a platform for the release of thousands of scientific abstracts-highly anticipated research news for many people, including patients, caregivers, and the general public. This section provides an overview of the opportunities available to patient advocates.

This section contains details on valuable scientific and educational meetings offered or co-sponsored by ASCO. These events are designed to meet the needs of oncology professionals, patient advocates, and others involved in the care of people with cancer.

The Conquer Cancer Foundation Patient Advocate Scholarship Program provides scholarships for patient advocates to attend ASCO-sponsored Symposia and the ASCO Annual Meeting to learn of important advances in their areas of interest.

Cancer.Net provides timely, comprehensive, oncologist-approved information from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), with support from the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Cancer.Net brings the expertise and resources of ASCO to people living with cancer and those who care for and about them to help patients and families make informed health care decisions.